The winners of the Samira Bawumia Literature Prize were crowned at the Fitzgerald in Accra on Monday, July 27, 2020.
Over a thousand young Ghanaians participated in the competition, with only 30 participants shortlisted for the final three categories, that is, Short fiction, Non- fiction and Poetry.
In the Short Fiction category, 20-year-old Anthony Morrison Kwavah came out tops, with Karen Donkor and Joel Afful finishing second and third respectively.
25-year-old Maurice Djojo Adjetey claimed the top prize in the Non-fiction category, with Grace Mensah-Fosu and Lawrence Neequaye claiming the 1st and 2nd runners up spots.
In the Poetry category, 24-year-old Jerry Agbenu picked you the ultimate prize, followed closely by 24-year-old Benjamin Arthur in second and Henneh Kyereh in third.
The winners of each category were awarded an amount of five thousand Ghana Cedis, three books written by Manasseh Azure, a laptop and a certificate for participation.
The second-placed participants were awarded an amount of three thousand Ghana Cedis, three books and a certificate for participation. Two thousand Ghana cedis, three books and a certificate for participation were awarded to the third place.
A special award was given to 17-year-old Miss Elsie Egogu, a form two Science student of the Holy Child Senior High School for been the youngest to participate in the competition.
Wife of the Vice President, and chief patron of the competition, Samira Bawumia, said plans are underway to organize a Writers workshop for the 30 finalists who participated.
“We are going to have a writing workshop, in fact, had intended to have a workshop for all the 30 finalists to improve their writing skills. We will bring writers, technical people, and professors in writing to help them to horn in their skills because these are amateur writers that we are supporting. The next step for us is to help the finalists so that we can publish the anthology that we want to put together so hopefully in a few months’ time you will see the book on the shelf and will be for the winners of this year.”
She urged parents to encourage their children to make reading a habit, in order to improve their writing.
“Parents should encourage reading. Reading is very important; it opens the child’s mind up. It opens them to new words, new worlds and things that are happening around them. It opens their world view and makes them open-minded.”
The annual literacy prize for young Ghanaians between the ages of 15 and 25 is aimed at providing young creative and writers with an opportunity to share their art with the world.
